Special advertorial column in the CURRENT OBSESSION MAGAZINE + PAPER and series of online articles featuring upcoming exhibitions, events, workshops and fairs.

CAMERA LUCIDA

INTERNATIONAL JEWELLERY CONTEST & EXHIBITION
An international collaboration in which original jewelry objects are transformed and re-interpreted by teams of two. Join a designer you’ve never met before and work together in an experimental project!

Assamblage – The Romanian National Contemporary Jewelry Association launches the international contest “CAMERA LUCIDA”. Supported by AFCN – The Administration of the National Cultural Fund, the project is dedicated to the upcoming commemoration of 100 years since the ending of World War I. Project Outline: Jewelry as a new way of storytelling. Social jewelry and ethic design The contest and the resulting exhibition is a challenge to regard jewelry as a new way to convey meaning, as a metaphor for communication, symbols and language in contemporary design. In a conceptual discourse about the assumption of the common past and cultural identity, a number of 20 designers will be brought together in a collaborative project.

Who can apply?

Contemporary jewelry designers regardless of age, experience and materials used in their work, are eligible to apply. There are no application fees to enter the contest.
NEW DEADLINE 13th of August

OBSESSED! Jewellery in The Netherlands

Mark November 2017 in your calendar as the hottest jewellery month of the year. A cluster of major jewellery-related events will take place in cultural institutions all over The Netherlands, spanning over the period of 20 days.

ICONS AT PLAY | CALL FOR ENTRIES

Brooklyn Metal Works invites you to apply:

Our objective is to showcase work that reinterprets cultural symbols and icons through the use of material, scale, wearability, and interaction. Our goal is to curate work that challenges and “plays” with the viewer’s understanding of what that symbol has come to represent. We are interested in icons and symbols that appear in the commercial jewelry world such as the bow, heart, snakes, crowns, keys and the faceted stone as well as in our everyday lives through emojis and other cultural symbols. We want to see these symbols interpreted from a different viewpoint, providing the viewer/wearer a new lens to interpret and experience icons; challenging the viewers preconditioned definition of what the icon represents.

Girls With Big Ears

Keun Gui So Nyeo

Seoul 2016

Mythical creatures of the past and the cyborgs of the future share enhanced features that us ordinary humans can only dream of. Regardless of time, our humble fantasies have beamed us towards the creation of fantastical abilities that may allow us to move beyond the known: breathing under water, flight, superhuman strength, surviving in space. Even our most basic urges – like changing our silhouettes – are connected to the same desire to develop beyond what is given. It’s what makes us human.

Photography by Senta Simond

Bodily alterations and alienations are countless, and their origins are buried deep within our sexuality, body image, concepts of beauty, cultural identity, rituals and religion. Somehow our changed silhouettes turn us into kin and encourage a kind of tribal semblance. We look at each other and based on that likeness alone, we’re able to generate common understanding.

Via hashtag treasure hunting, we discovered a bold group of South Korean girls. They all share an obsession with big ears. Ten to fifteen centimetres in diameter, their sheer size renders these girls sub- or superhuman. Thanks to social media these girls found each other quickly because of their obscure yet shared craze. It’s not some social media ploy: they say the bigger ears ameliorate the way their straight hair drapes around their necks. But what’s more is that the newfound silhouette allows them to be in tune with each other. It’s not about rebelliousness, notoriety or trend setting, it is about kinship. To seek normalcy within their mutual peculiarity, they become mythical relatives and create a new kind of authenticity that only this day and age is able to provide.

‘Our new images has grown from a desire to transgress the limits of our bodies, but not conform to the regular idea of beauty. We are moving toward a new, mythical reality.’

In early 2016, Current Obsession had the opportunity to become a ‘client’ for a group of ECAL Photography Master students, who were asked to create photographic narratives especially for the #5 Vernacular Issue. Six students: Johannes Bauer, Vilhelm Björndahl, Nicolas Garner, Maria Grazia Grasso, Senta Simond and Laura Zoccarato, were guided by the talented Dutch photographer Lonneke van der Palen. During the course of applied photography, every student needed to be able to bring a personal and artistic approach to a commissioned project. We feel honoured to be able to work with such talented group and thrilled to share the results of this collaboration.

This series by Senta Simond was chosen to be published in The #5 Vernacular Issue.